Low Melting Mixtures: Neoteric Solvents and/or Catalysts for a Green Approach to Organic Reactions

In the past two decades, low melting mixtures have become attractive because of their interesting characteristics such as physicochemical properties, low cost of components, easiness of preparation, low toxicity, biorenewability and biodegradability. Carbohydrates the most important and widespread renewable compounds on earth, are introduced in low melting mixtures to get more cost-effective and renewable solvents. The present review mainly focuses on the properties and applications of low melting mixtures, which completely satisfy the green chemistry principles. Many physicochemical properties of low melting mixtures have been studied recently. The various studies included thermal stability, glass transition temperature, density, viscosity, acidity, surface tension, refractive index, FT-IR spectra, conductivity, etc. The application towards organic synthesis makes the low melting mixtures very important. Low melting mixtures and their use as a solvent in organic synthesis and their dual role as catalyst and solvent are discussed.